Over My Shoulders

There isn't a single day when I wake up without thinking of my female elders and wondering what their view of the current world would be. First there is my mother, a lady born in the end of the 19th Century, who would be absolutely stunned by modern communication tools. For instance, I left the house a few minutes ago and headed to my favorite book store. I love that place because I can buy bestsellers of a few years past for between one dollar and three dollars. Please not that I am talking about hardbound books, not paperbacks. As I was scanning the shelves for authors who interest me, an electronic chime goes off in my pocket. Naturally my sons are trying to find me since I left the house and told no one but the dog where I was going. I answer the flip phone and reassure my family that no, I am neither lost, kidnapped, or suddenly afflicted with Alzheimers disease and I will be home LATER. The phone alone would have shocked my mother...after all she lived in our holler all of her life and there was only one phone in its mile and a half stretch. That phone was in our house because my father worked for the electric company and he was on call 24 hours a day. The idea of a wireless phone in my pocket no bigger than a bar of soap would have been beyond her belief.

I leave the book store with my purchases in a broadcloth shopping bag. Don't think Mama would have been so bothered with the bag but I can only imagine the shock on her face when I push a button in my pocket to unlock the doors of my TRUCK! The electronic key would have been surprising but somehow I think she would have been bothered to see a woman driving a vehicle that could only be described as a truck (my Honda CRV). After all ...Daddy drove a truck, my uncles drove a truck, but women in the 1940's did not drive trucks...they rode while the men drove. In those years, there were a few families in the mountains that still traveled in horse drawn wagons.
My mother died in 1945 and time marched on. The one room schoolhouse where she taught faithfully for so many years has long since been destroyed by vandals who had no respect for the history of the physical building or of the family that built it. I salvaged some of the books from the schoolhouse and some of her other books that discussed curriculum and methods of her times. It is my personal way of touching her memory because I don't even own a picture of her except in my thoughts and dreams.
Life was simpler in my mother's time and families were closer together. That family closeness was a strong survival tool. I sincerely hope the current generation of family adapts the new technology to maintain that closeness. I have rambled enough for today...I will add nore thoughts soime other day.


jmp, 5/23/09